The Legacy
by starkwolf44
Summary: When Greg and Terry's daughter, Libby, finds out her life isn't all that normal the hard way, and after being attacked by a monster, meeting a girl named Annabeth, being whisked to a strange place called Camp Half Blood, and is offered a quest that will defy the future as her new friends prepare themselves for a war against an awakening evil.
1. Chapter 1

Until she met the manticore, Libby was having a pretty good day.

She'd parked her car at a lot in downtown Langley Falls and waited at the corner to cross the street. The store, Landon's, was only a block away, but she wasn't in a hurry. If she wanted to by her parents the perfect anniversary gift, she'd have to buy her time to make sure she didn't choose the gift in haste. Her parents could be rather picky.

At sixteen, Libby was a little tall for someone her age but lithe, built like a long-distance runner. Her blond was short and choppy, so she looked like a tomboy, but it made her all the more beautiful. She had a heart-shaped face and blue eyes were as a bright as a swimming pool on a hot summer's day. She wore a black hoodie over a purple-and-black striped top, dark-blue skinny jeans, navy Converse sneakers, and beanie over her head.

Her phone rang as she crossed the street. The caller ID read "GREG" and she panicked for about a second before calming down and answered.

"Hi, Dad,"

"Hi, sweetie," he said, his voice high-pitched, almost feminine. "Can you do me a favor and pick up some dog food on your way home."

"Sure," she said.

"You're driving while talking on the phone are you?"

Libby sighed. Her parents could be a little overprotective with her at times, but she knew they couldn't help it. One of her earliest memories was her parents calling her "a precious gift from Heaven." There were other early memories she could recall, not something she'd like to talk about a lot.

"No," she assured him, "Alisha's driving." Alisha, her best friend, was, in fact, on a date at that moment, but she agreed to say she was with Libby in case one of her parents would call her.

"Make sure you two stay close," he warned.

"No problem,"

He paused, and then said, whole-heartily, "Have fun, kid."

"Always do," she said and hung up and breathed a sigh of relief. She'd been meaning to buy a present for the past week but her homework and other responsibilities—cheerleading practice, hanging out with her friends took up most of her time—have kept her from doing this.

Libby loved her parents. They were always fun, full of energy, and funny. She wanted to buy them something showed her appreciation for raising her right and always been there for her when she needed them.

She wished others could see her parents the way she and her friends do. Libby learned at a young age that when it came to have parents like hers it came to the heavy price of enduring persecution from the cruelest of people—and they're much worse than bullies.

Landon's was only a couple storefronts down the way when the bay window of the café in front of her exploded and monster came flying out and crashing into the street.

Libby lunged back from the café window, her heart racing. People inside were screaming, tables and chairs falling over as they scrambled into the back to hide from the monster.

_Wait, _Libby though. _Monster? That's not possible. There's no such thing._

Libby didn't want to believe it, but there really was a monster in the street, recovering from being thrown out the window.

It had the body of a lion, but its skin was blood-red, like it'd took a bath in a tub of red paint, a mane of sandy fur that covered most of its upper body, a long tail that was round at the end like a basketball and long spikes growing out of it, and the head of a square-jawed man with two different eye colors—one brown, one blue. She looked closer and saw a thick mark around its neck as though it had been strangled.

Libby first impulse was to run away, but there was something holding her back, some voice deep in her mind telling her to stay and watch the events unfold.

The beast recovered and looked over and saw it was in the path of a car, but it swatted it away like it was fly and vehicle was sent swirling to the curb.

Its nostrils flared and it locked its eyes on Libby. "Oh," he said. "You have pure blood in your veins. I wonder how she tastes."

"Don't even think about it, Thorn!" someone shouted.

Libby and Thorn—which she guessed he got the name from the spikes growing out of his tail—turned to the shattered window sill where a girl with blond hair stood with a knife in her hand.

The monster, Throne, growled at the girl and bounded toward her. She took a step back and raised her knife, ready to defend herself.

Libby lunged for Thorn, and it took her second afterwards before she realized what she was doing, and she tried to pull back, but she knew it was too late when the bottom of her shoe collided with the side of Thorn's face.

The girl on the window was just as surprised as she was. They looked at each other like: _What just happened? _

"Who the Hades are you!?" the girl demanded. Her gray eyes we're as fierce as thunderclouds.

"What?" Libby asked. She didn't know much about Greek mythology. There was a class at school studied the subject, but the closest experience she had with it was that old Disney movie.

The girl glanced at the monster, then at Libby. "You can see the manticore?"

"Of course," she said, "who can't? What's a manticore?"

A woman comes around the corner and shouts, "Rhino!" and ran off.

"Rhino?" Libby asked.

"Look out!" shouted the girl, and from the corner of her eye Libby saw the manticore charging her. She lunged back, his razor teeth missing her completely, and the girl drove her knife into the lion-man's side. He howled in pain, cursing under his breath in a language Libby couldn't understand. Then it spoke English.

"You cannot hide from me forever Annabeth Chase," he said. "I captured you once and I can do it again. My patron is rising from the earth. She will have her revenge and I'm to make sure you and that boyfriend of yours are there when she awakens."

Libby had no idea what he was talking about, but I didn't sound good. The girl, Annabeth, grunted, driving her knife further along the manticore's body like she was carving a turkey.

"That'll be the day," she said and gave her knife one final push, twisted it, and Libby watched as the manticore explode in a cloud of gold dust.

Annabeth cleaned her knife on her jeans and slipped it into a sheath inside her jacket. She was wearing an orange T-shirt that read something. Most of the letters were blocked by her jacket, but she could a logo that was clearly a winged horse above the letters.

"Hi," she said.

"Hi yourself," Libby replied. She wanted to run from this girl, but there was something about her that was inviting, and even after seeing her gut a monster the likes of the manticore, she seemed friendly.

"What cabin are you from?"

"I don't live in a cabin,"

"Are you a demigod?" Annabeth asked.

"I have no idea what that is," Libby said.

"But you saw through the Mist, apart from a few mortals, only demigods can see monsters for what they really are."

"Like that woman?" Libby asked. "She cried _rhino _and ran off."

"Exactly," Annabeth nodded. "The Mist is the work of the gods. Think of it like a magical shield that hides the true appearance of monsters and demons from mortals."

"Go back," Libby demanded. "What gods? And what's up with that?"

She pointed to the pile of dust. It was moving, falling back into place, _reforming _the Thorn the manticore.

"Is that supposed to happen?" she asked.

"No," Annabeth said grimly.

"I think we should get out of here?" Libby said.

"Don't worry," Annabeth said. "I have a ride." She put her fingers to her mouth and whistled so loud Libby had to cover her ears.

From the shadows of the alley between the café and the bookstore next to it, a beast the size of a tank came bounding towards them. Its body was coated in messy black fur, and when it saw Annabeth it licked her faced and panted—then it saw Libby and growled at her.

"Mrs. O'Leary, heal," Annabeth commanded and the beast listed to her.

"This is so cool!" Libby said. "Its name is Mrs. O'Leary?"

"I didn't name her,"

Libby shrugged. "Hey, I have a dog named Heath Ledger."

Annabeth laughed and Mrs. O'Leary lowered her body, allowing her to climb on her back. "You wanna ride?" she asked.

"Are you serious?"

"I know what you saw was weird," Annabeth said. "And I can explain everything to you, but not here. In a few minute the manticore will reform, and I want to be far away when that happens. And he smelled your blood, too, which means he'll be coming after you if he fails in finding me."

Libby took a step towards Mrs. O'Leary but stopped. All she had to do was go to Landon's a buy a gift for her parents. Now she was about ride a giant dog with a girl she didn't to know to a place god-knows-where.

She thought about her parents. They'd be worried sick if Libby didn't make it home. They went crazy the last time she was taken from them, but this was different, she thought. She wasn't a baby anymore, she was a grown women, mature enough to make her own choices, besides, this girl, Annabeth, seemed nice, the kind of person you can trust even riding a hellhound like a horse. Plus, she could call her parents and explain everything.

Libby climbed on Mrs. O'Leary's back and the beast padded down the alley, into the shadows.

Darkness seemed to swallow them. Before everything went black, Annabeth asked, "By the way, what's your name. I forgot to ask."

"Libby,"

"Nice to meet you,"

"Likewise, so where are we going?"

"A place on the edge of the Long Island Sound, called Camp Half-Blood."

And with that they descended into darkness.


	2. Chapter 2

Mrs. O'Leary walked out of the shadows behind a big, four-story-high ranch house with a wraparound poach.

Libby's nostrils were filled with the overwhelming smell of fresh strawberries. The giant dog set her and Annabeth on the porch where they walked around to the front door, Mrs. O'Leary following them.

The big house overlooked a small valley that glowed bright into the late winter sun. The hills were dotted with Greek-style building—a dining pavilion, an armory, a long corrugated shed that looked like some kind of workshop, an amphitheater, a basketball/volleyball court, and horse stables.

Libby pointed to a giant rock wall. "Is that thing spewing lava?"

"Indeed it is, my dear," a man in a wheelchair said. He was sitting in front of a table where a card game had been set up, but she looked closer and saw the cards covered in dust, telling her they hadn't been played with in a while.

The man in the chair was middle-aged with a curly beard, thinning brown hair and eyes, and bushy eyebrows. He wore tweed jacket, slacks, loafers, and a T-shirt that said _PARTY PONY_. Libby was afraid to ask what that meant, but the man wearing seemed friendly enough.

"Chiron," Annabeth said, "I've got a new one."

"Do you now?" he said, intrigued. He looked at her thoroughly. "How old are you, my child?"

"Sixteen," Libby said.

"Interesting," Chiron whispered. He gestured for her to sit down and she did. Annabeth sat in the lawn chair next to him. She told him everything, how she was investigating the disappearance of a group of satyrs—"Half men, half goats," she told Libby—and was stopping for a lunch break when she ran into her old friend Dr. Thorn the manticore—"Wait," Libby interrupted, "this guy's a doctor now?"—how she managed to send it flying out the window by blowing up a large espresso maker, and how Libby saw through the Mist and managed to kick the beast away, allowing Annabeth to gut it.

Chiron stayed calm through the entire story, like he heard about monsters attacking people on a daily basis. But when Annabeth mention how fast the manticore was reforming, his eyes went wide.

"Was it faster than before?" he asked.

"It was," Annabeth confirmed. "Another minute or two and he would have been fully restored."

"Death has truly lost control," Chiron said. "Things are getting worse than before, it's just as I'd feared."

"What's going on?" Libby asked and turned, looking at the camp. "What is this place? Who are you people?"

Chiron smiled and placed his hands on the table. "My dear, have you ever noticed any strange thing happen, things you couldn't explain, maybe because you didn't understand what you were seeing?"

"Are you talking about the Mist?" Libby asked. "Annabeth said it was controlled by the gods. What gods? _The _God?"

"That is another matter entirely," Chiron said. "The gods we speak of are of much older than that. These are the Olympian gods, the divine entities that ruled over all aspects of life in ancient times. However, they still exist at this very moment, their home, Mount Olympus, residing above the Empire State Building at this very moment."

Libby turned to Annabeth. "Is he for real?"

"He is, Libby," Annabeth confirmed. "The gods are real. They originated in Greece, but as the world got bigger, and civilization expanded to the west—Rome, Britain, the Americas—the gods moved with it."

Libby wanted to think these people were crazy, but after seeing the manticore, Annabeth turning it to dust, summoning Mrs. O'Leary from the shadows and using them to teleport from Langley Falls to the tip of Long Island in under a minute, and hearing the Olympian gods—Zeus and Poseidon and all those guys—were still around, she started to wonder if she was going crazy—especially after kicking the manticore in the face.

"I know it sounds crazy, Libby, but—" Annabeth said.

"I believe you," she said. "I actually do."

Annabeth sighed in relief. "Thank gods," she said. "I guess it gets easier after a while, right Chiron?"

"It can be hard at times," Chiron said. "Remember how Percy reacted to all this?"

The two remain silence for a moment before breaking out in laughter. Then Annabeth suddenly started to cry and she excused herself.

"Is she okay?"

"Her boyfriend, Percy Jackson, went missing a few months ago and we used all our time and effort into finding him, and we have bad luck for a while—we found nothing, no trace of him. Then we caught a break and realized the queen of the gods, Hera, started her own exchange program."

"What kind of program?"

"I swore a long time ago to never reveal this, but recent events have forced my hands," Chiron explained. "An ancient evil is awakening, and it will take forces of both camps to defeat it."

"Both camps?"

"There is another camp for demigods out there, for children born of the Roman aspects of the gods."

"And this Percy guy was sent there?"

"Yes," Chiron said.

"So if they got Percy, who did you guys get?"

"A young man named Jason Grace, son of Jupiter, Zeus' Roman form. He has proved himself a strong warrior, but there are many events that have yet to occur before Jason and his friends of the Great Prophecy set sail for the other camp to meet up with Percy."

Libby didn't know what the Great Prophecy, but one of her friends, Evan, was a fantasy nerd, and if she guessed right the Great Prophecy and Here's exchange program involved getting the Greek and the Roman together to face this _ancient evil _Chiron was talking about.

"You don't think _I _have something to do with the Great Prophecy do you?" she asked.

"Of course not, child," he assured her. "I suggest you don't worry about it. Let's move on to you."

"Me?"

"You were able to see through the Mist, as Annabeth had said. Only a demigod can see through it, apart from the occasional human."

"And what's a demigod?"

"A child born of a mortal parent and god," Chiron said.

Libby tried to let it sink in, but she ended up bursting out in laughter. Chiron seemed confused by this, even Annabeth, who'd stopped crying and was walking over, seemed taken aback.

"Okay," she said. "Now I know you guys are crazy? You think I'm a demigod?"

"Are you ADHD and/or dyslexic?"

"No. Why?"

"It's a common trait that all demigods share. It expands their minds, makes them more aware of their surroundings, and it hardwires their minds for battle when danger is near."

"And to protect those who don't know about their abilities," Annabeth said, "we send satyrs into school all over the country to seek them out and bring them here so they can be claimed by their godly parent and learn how to survive on their own."

"But I'm not ADHD or dyslexic," Libby said. "Maybe I'm one of those mortals who can see through the Mist." Then she remembered what the manticore had said: _You have pure blood in your veins. _She had the feeling that didn't come from a random mortal that could see through the Mist.

"Who are your parents?" Annabeth asked.

Libby started laughing again. "Okay," she said cockily. "This is my ace in the hole—my _proof _that there's no way in hell I can be like you." She paused and sighed. "I was born under different circumstances. My parents are, shall we say, live what some still call"—she made air quotes—"'alternative lifestyle.'"

Chiron and Annabeth stared at her blackly.

Libby scoffed. "Do I have to spell it out for you?" She took out her phone and scrolls through her photos until she found her favorite picture of her parents and handed it to Chiron.

"Oh, I see," he said.

Annabeth looked at it. The photo showed two men huddled together on a beach, the sun setting the background. One was a blond man with blue eyes and an athletic build wearing a white Speedo and an unbuttoned orange flower-printed shirt. Standing behind him was another man with one arm wrapped around the blond and the other holding a drink with an umbrella. He body was beefy and he had brown hair and eyes.

"Meet my parents," she said. She pointed at the brown-haired man: "Greg Corbin." She pointed at the blond: "Terry Bates."

"Oh my gods," Annabeth said. "They're so cute!"

"That was our vacation to Hawaii last year," Libby said. "Best time of my life."

"You continue to surprise me, Libby," Chiron said. "Were you adopted?"

"No," she said. "I'm a surrogate child. I was carried by Francine Smith who was given and egg mix with my dad's semen."

"Have you seen any other monster in your life besides the manticore?" Chiron asked.

"Well, I was kidnapped when about thirty seconds after I was born," Libby said.

"What?" Annabeth said, almost dropping Libby's phone.

"He's a hardcore republican that lives across the street from us," she explained. "He thought gays were incapable of raising a child, he tried to take me to an orphanage in Nebraska but changed his mind after meeting a lesbian couple who had two normal kids. He gave me back, giving my parents a chance to raise me right, and he's backed off since."

"Wow," said Annabeth.

"Yeah, and _you _guys think you get into enough trouble fighting monsters,"

"Sister, you don't know that half of it."

"Maybe you really aren't a demigod," Chiron said. "Was your surrogate mother raised by a single parent?"

"No, she was adopted by a Chinese couple a few years after her birth parents gave her up," Libby said.

They were silent for a moment. Libby was thinking they were deciding to believe her story. She never liked talking about her being kidnapped as an infant. Sure, Stan Smith gave her back and her dads took out a restraining order against him, but they later dropped it so she could be watched by Francine while they were working—they were news anchors.

Her dads may have gotten past it, but Libby still felt blue when the subject was brought up. Stan may have given her back and gotten punched in her face by Terry, but she herself wanted closer, and the only way she felt she could do that was giving Stan Smith a good kick in the balls.

Annabeth broke the silence. "What about a Legacy?" she asked Chiron.

He nodded. "That _is _another possibility."

They're never going to drop this, Libby thought. "What's a Legacy?"

"A Legacy is a child born of one or more demigod parents," Annabeth said. "The battle reflexes and powers of the parents are passed on to their children and develop as it did for them."

Libby stared at them. "You think…my parents are demigods?"

"We're just examining all the possibilities," Annabeth said.

"Let me see the photo again," Chiron said. Annabeth handed it to him and he examined it. "Is it really them?"

"Are they the real deal?"

"I know the names, faces, and godly parent of every demigod I've ever trained. Those that leave when they get to old for this place I either see on the big screen at the movies, being sworn in a President, receiving the Nobel Prize, walking on the moon, or sometimes they try to live normal lives."

"Is that even possible?" Annabeth said.

"The older a demigod gets, the stronger they become," Chiron said. "You remember how Thalia snuck you and Percy into that bar to see Papa Roach?"

Annabeth's cheeks went red. "How did you know about that?"

"I may be old, but I'm not stupid,"

"Is it too late to say sorry?"

"I'll let it slide this time, but do it again and I'll have you clean the stables for a month."

"You have my word," Annabeth promised.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Libby asks.

"When demigods get to the point in their lives where they have total control over their powers, which includes gaining the ability to manipulate the Mist and hide their scent from monsters. Thalia Grace is an exception, though, being the daughter of Zeus."

"So you're basically saying that my dads are demigods?" Libby asked.

"As said, my child," Chiron said, "I know every demigod that's spent a summer here at Camp Half-Blood." He handed the phone back to her, the photo of her dads still on screen. "These two _have _been here."

Libby wanted to drop the phone. She didn't want to believe Chiron's story, but he sounded so sure of himself that she couldn't help but wonder if he was right. We're her parent's demigods?

That's when the sky suddenly seemed to shin brighter, and something above her head glowed an ugly mix of pink and brown. Chiron and Annabeth—Annabeth most of all—were stunned. Libby looked up and saw two holograms floating above her head. The pink one had a heart and the brown one showed a staff with a pair of wings growing out both sides and two snakes coiled around the shaft, meeting at the top—a caduceus.

They seemed to get brighter, as thought fighting over which could shin even more until they finally gave up and vanished.

"I don't believe it!" Annabeth said. Libby couldn't tell if she was shocked or excited.

Chiron moved out of his wheelchair, but his legs didn't move. His waist, however, seemed to grow out of the chair, and he grew taller as the body of a horse with white fur magically appeared, but where its head should have been was the upper body of the man she'd spent the last half hour talking with.

She was staring at a man who was normal form the waist up but a horse from the waist down: a centaur.

"Oh—my—god," Libby said. She and Annabeth backed away to give Chiron room to stretch out his hindquarters. When he was finished, Annabeth fell in next to him and they bowed—Chiron lowering his front hoof—and he said, "Hail Libby Corbin-Bates, Legacy of Aphrodite, goddess of love and beauty, and of Hermes, god of thieves and travelers."


	3. Chapter 3

Libby didn't realize she'd fainted until she woke up in the living room of the ranch house.

The first thing she thought was this: _Who ever decorated this room has bad taste. _

A network of grapevines curved up the walls and along the ceiling. In the corner was a Pac-Man arcade game. Mounted on the wall behind her were a collection of Mardi Gras masks, a smiley/frowny pair of masks, and a set of African Tribal masks carved out of wood. The weirdest thing, however, was the stuffed leopard head above the roaring fire place in front of her.

For a second she thought it moved, and it _did_. It snarled at her and Libby was so scared its entire body would grow out of the plaque that she threw herself back into the couch, nearly tipping it over.

"The leopards alive!" she shouted and Annabeth, Chiron, now back in his wheelchair form, probably because he'd keep hitting head on the ceiling because of his horse body, Libby thought. _Horse body, _she thought again. She still had a hard time picturing the old man with the body of a horse, being bowed to after learning her parents were demigods that she felt ready to pass out again.

Annabeth caught her before that could happen while Chiron shouted at the leopard, "Seymour, behave yourself!" He grabbed a back of Sausages from a side pocket of his wheelchair and threw it at the leopard. The animal caught the snack and swallowed it whole.

"That thing has a name?" Libby asked.

"A parting gift from Dionysus," Annabeth said. She sounded annoyed. "He was recalled to Olympus and he trusted us with caring Seymour while he's away."

"Okay," Libby said. She decided she really didn't care. "It's not gonna eat me is it?"

"Not if you get to close," Annabeth said.

Libby stared at her.

"I'm kidding,"

It took Libby a few minutes to calm down. She tried to process everything that's happened to her, and while she did there was a knock at the front door and three kids—two boys and girl—about her age walked into the parlor.

"What are you guys doing here?" Annabeth asked.

"We saw the light from the sword fighting arena and we thought something was wrong," the girl said.

The first boy was cute. His blond hair was close-cropped, and his icy-blue eyes sent a chill through Libby's arms, and he a small scar on the side of his mouth. He wore cargo shorts, running shoes, and an orange tank-top with the words CAMP HALF-BLOOD and a symbol, the same one on Annabeth's shirt, that Libby now knew was a flying Pegasus on it. He was sweating, like he'd just come from the gym, but Libby thought otherwise when she saw the gold sword hanging at his side.

He was holding hands with the girl. She was a tomboy, like Libby, but she was extremely beautiful, even with her brown hair cut choppy and uneven with strands that were braded here there that fell to her shoulders. There was no competition between her and Libby. Her eyes seemed to change color when she moved, like a kaleidoscope—brown, blue, and green. She had the chopper skin of a Native American Indian. She wore ragged jeans, combat boots, and the same orange shirt as Annabeth's under a fur-lined denim jacket.

The other boy might have been gangly with a mop curly brown hair and blue eyes with unusual upturned eyebrows, but his crooked smile told Libby this guy was devious and smart. He wore jeans, an orange shirt, expensive looking shoes Libby felt he didn't just walk in and buy, and an army jacket.

Everyone stared at Libby. Being a cheerleader, she was used to having so many eyes on her, but eyed by a man in a wheelchair who was really a centaur, a girl she helped kill the manticore, three seemingly normal kids, and a leopard trophy named Seymour that came to life, she felt _very _uncomfortable.

"Hi," the girl with the brown hair said. "My name's Piper, this is Jason." He smiled at her and Libby thought she was going to pass out again.

"I just wanna get this out the way," Libby said, "but as anyone ever told you how cute you are?"

"Piper holds the record," Jason said.

"So don't get any funny ideas," Piper warned, and there was something about the way she spoke, more than the slight aggressing in her voice, that told Libby she was serious.

"Wouldn't dream of it," Libby said, and she felt weird saying that, as though it's what Piper wanted to hear and she commanded it.

"Travis," Chiron said, "if Dionysus finds out you tried to steal one of those masks, he'll turn you into a dolphin!"

Libby realized the boy next to Jason was gone, like he'd vanished, and followed the other's gaze to the wall with the masks where the boy was trying to slip on of the African masks into his jacket. His face turned red and put it back before rejoining Jason.

"Piper here is the head counselor of the Aphrodite cabin," Chiron said. "Travis, along with his brother Conner, who's at school back home, is the counselor of the Hermes cabin."

"And he somehow hasn't gotten himself kicked out yet," Jason mused.

Libby remembered the cabins she saw down the in the valley and knew that's what they were talking about. "And I'm guessing I'm to be placed in one of them?"

"You have your father's incites," Chiron said.

"Which one?"

"Greg's,"

"She has two dads?" Jason asked.

"Both of whom are demigods," Annabeth said.

"Which brings me back to why I fainted," Libby said. "I was overwhelmed by the news not because I couldn't believe it. I fainted because I think you guys are right."

Even the leopard seemed surprised.

"You do?" Piper asked.

"I think it's like this," Libby said. "I could be wrong, but Chiron could correct me when I'm done. And you guys might want to sit down—this could take a while."

Jason and Piper sat next to Libby. Travis sat in the chair next to the couch. Chiron already had a seat. Libby couldn't tell, but she guessed Seymour was trying to sit upright, as though he didn't know he had nothing from the neck down.

"I'll start with Greg," Libby said. "He was born in Richmond, Virginia; his mother's name was Susan and he never knew his father was—at least until he found out he was demigod, I guess. Susan had a string of lovers over the years and Greg eventually lost all interested in girls because of that. I don't know much about his teenage years, but he _was _confused about his sexual identity. He kept telling himself he was strait because of Susan's republican beliefs, even going so far as to marry a woman, but that didn't last long. He had a nervous breakdown, came out of closet, and when he did he felt better finally admitting who he was. He and his wife—I've never bothered to ask her name—ended their marriage on good terms, but Susan couldn't stand the sight of him, so he moved to D.C. and became a journalist. That's how he met Terry."

She looked at Chiron. "What was he like when he was here?"

Chiron sighed. "For a son of Hermes, Greg Corbin was different. He didn't like stealing, but he did like to travel, so I taught him how use a power many children of Hermes don't know they posses."

"What power?" Travis asked.

"Teleportation,"

She let it sink in. "My dad can teleport?" Libby asked.

"He showed promise in our first lesson," Chiron said. "We started small moving from one side of the room to other, then from room-to-room, and he eventually was able to cross entire the continent. He was by far one of my favorite students. In fact—"

He left the room for a moment, giving Libby some time to think. She knew Greg liked to travel—Terry, too—but growing up she remembered using a plane as a means of transport when she was a baby, not magical teleporters.

Chiron came back with a photo album in his lap. He flipped through the pages until he stopped and pulled a picture from the sleeve and handed it to Libby. Sure enough, there was Chiron, a young Greg Corbin—_was his hair really like that? _Libby thought—and a bunch of other kids at a long wooden table eating dinner.

She passed the picture around and when it got to Travis he said, "Were they're really that many kids in our cabin back then?"

"Yes,"

"Did Hermes's libido go of the scale a little?" Libby asked and laughed. When she realized no one else was laughing, she felt bad. "Sorry."

"Don't take it to heart," Annabeth said. "Back then, until…Percy came along and defeated the Titans last summer, the gods didn't pay much attention to their kids. They wouldn't claim them and they were all stuffed into the Hermes until it happened—_if _it happened, at least. For saving the world, the gods granted Percy some favors and one of them was that they'd claim their kids after they turned"

Libby didn't know anything about Titans—other than the football team—but from gloomy silence that fell over the room, she decided not to ask.

She changed the subject: "Terry's upbringing is much worse than Greg's. He knew he was gay when he very young and he would have told his father, but Tank Bates was the best fullback in the NFL—kids had posters of this guy in their rooms. Terry knew if word got out Tank was raising a gay kid, parents would go crazy thinking their kids would turn out like Terry. He tried to follow in his father's footsteps, playing football in high school, but he didn't play in college and got a journalism degree on a whim and found it to his liking."

"His father was so focused on his football career that he was rarely home," Chiron said. "Being a child of Aphrodite, goddess of desire, Terry had a stronger scent that attracted monsters than most demigods. Thankfully, we got to him first and brought him here.

"He took pride in being a demigod. He made a lot of friends and was considered the most popular kid at camp. Normally a child of Aphrodite doesn't excel in combat like a child of Ares or Apollo, but Terry was an exception. His team won every game of capture the flag and he made a rare accomplishment by achieving the respect of the Ares cabin. The last time I saw him was he was nineteen. He told us he wanted to make a life for himself and I knew he'd do just fine. And after seeing you, Libby, I can see Greg and Terry have done well."

"Were they here at the same time?" Libby asked.

"No," Chiron said. "Terry came along a couple months after Greg left. Wherever they told you they met, it was the truth."

"This is really cool," Jason said.

"Here's a picture of them now," Libby said. She pulled out her phone and showed the picture of Greg and Terry in Hawaii. When Piper got it, she nodded. "I recognize Terry. He's on the Aphrodite cabin's hall of fame. He's defiantly one of us."

"So what happens now?" Libby asked. "Do I stay here? Do I go home? I mean, there shouldn't be a problem if my dad's have been able to keep themselves under the radar after all these years."

Chiron sighed with regret and Libby knew she wasn't going to like what she was going to hear. "Unfortunately, it's not as simple as that, Libby. As I have told you, an ancient evil is awakening. Monsters of the worst kind are crawling out of the depths of the Underworld, plaguing mankind once again. The world is becoming a dangerous place for demigods. For your safety, I suggest you stay here."

"But what about my dads'!?" she demanded. "I can't just leave them out there to be eaten by monsters while I'm here."

"If they've been able to keep themselves under the radar for this long, they should be fine," Travis said.

"I agree," Chiron said. "But these are troubling times. Gaea is awakening, her children, the giants, too. If they intend to bring upon the end of the world, we'll need all allies we can muster; we all know we barely got by with the Titans. If Libby wishes to consult with her parents, she may."

Libby called home, and as it rang Jason looked at Chiron and said, "I thought demigods couldn't use phones because they attract monsters."

"With the Golden Fleece protecting our boarders it should be fine, so I will allow it this one time, but our location is sacred, I can't allow people checking Tweets and watching videos on YouTube while monsters converge on the camp."

Piper glanced at Annabeth and remembered using her cell phone where she first arrived at camp and the two friends smiled, but tried not to laugh so Chiron wouldn't notice.

They watched as Libby talked into her phone, and when she hung up she looked shocked and confused.

"What's the word?" Travis asked.

"Well, they're happy that I'm okay and am somewhere safe," Libby said. "On whether I should go home or stay here, however, is interesting."

"How so?" Chiron asked.

"They're coming here," Libby said, "to Camp Half-Blood."


End file.
